Poker news from http://www.chron.com/
Norman Chad is bewildered, too. Not that he's complaining, but ...
Why would anybody watch a sporting event on TV weeks after it was held, and everybody knows who won, and by how much?
That's just what happens each year when ESPN shows the World Series of Poker — over and over and over — weeks after it's over.
After two months of night and day holding and folding, the World Series of Poker is winding down. The final table of the main event — No Limit Texas Hold 'em — will be held today.
ESPN will show it for the first time in late September.
"Usually, that's the best thing about watching sports: It's live and you don't know how it ends. But with ESPN's coverage of poker, viewers do know who won — and still they watch it like reruns of Seinfeld," said Chad, who has been the quirky, funny color analyst on the World Series of Poker since 2003.
"It amazes me how people will watch the same episode of poker over and over, too. No matter what time ESPN runs poker, even in the middle of the night, the ratings will spike. Poker's ratings are better than the show that ran before it and better than the show that will follow it."
Chad had no idea what he was in for when ESPN hired him to announce the 2003 World Series of Poker with play-by-play man Lon McEachern,
"I was a poker player, but I had never been to a tournament. When I got to Vegas, I was surprised by how big it was. I called all my friends and said, 'Where has this been all my life?'
"It is that incredible an event. And it was nothing then like it is now (with 8,700 players and a top prize of $12 million)," Chad said.
Until the World Series of Poker entered his life, Chad was a Los Angeles-based sports columnist and world's proudest couch potato. When assigned to cover a sports event, Chad preferred to watch it on television in his living room. He's not exactly what you'd call a people person.
"When people find out that I once was a waiter, they're stunned that I was able to deal with interacting with people on that level," he said.
"Now, announcing poker takes me to New York City for three months a year and to Las Vegas for another three months. And, yes, people do recognize me because of the popularity of poker on ESPN. It's just something I deal with," he said.
Televising poker is unlike any other sport. ESPN cameras will capture 14 to 16 hours of poker in a single day and boil it down to 45 minutes of taped highlights. Then, weeks later, Chad and McEachern will sit in a studio in New York City and provide their commentary as though they were covering it live.
"Watching poker live would be boring for people who aren't poker aficionados. You're just watching guys throw chips into the middle of a table. Nothing goes on, most hands; one player raises and everybody else folds. A final table could consist of 200 hands over 14 hours. We edit it down to maybe 14 or 15 hands played and 45 minutes.
"We do watch the whole tape at least once before we do our commentary," he said.
Another difference between televised poker and other sports — it doesn't matter if the best-known poker stars make the final table.
"We don't have a 'Tiger Effect' in poker. In golf, if Tiger Woods isn't part of your telecast, the ratings are generally terrible. In poker, there's no difference in ratings whether the top stars or total unknowns are featured. People like the big names, especially the ones who are characters, but it's the poker that really draws them to watch," he said.
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